Man Your Battle Stations! - Day 6

It rained some time in the night as the weather man predicted.  But we had already determined to something that would call for us to be indoors today.  Our adventure would take us one hour away to Norfolk, Virginia....:-)  And we can see who was ready to go first! ......:-)

We took the highway all the way there.  No scenic roads since we had a late start.  Once we arrived, things starting getting interesting.....

I mean how would you like to have this monstrocity sitting .....well, I guess wherever you can fit it!  One could get lost on this thing.....ha; not that I would mind that......:-).

And just down the road was our destination for the day.......Hang on to your hats, folks.  You are about to approach a beast!

There was a gift shop immediately inside the doors.....Which I was tempted to visit, but figured we had better wait until we were leaving......that big thingee on the right side is a fish tank with all manner of swimming creatures in it.



and this is where we were headed........The Battleship USS-Wisconson constructed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1944 served in World War II and now sits in the harbor at Norfolk, Virginia.  This thing puts that yacht to shame in regard to size.......geeze!  I mean, look at the size of this beast!  I couldn't even get the whole thing in my lense and had to take the picture in sections......  This battlship housed 2,700 sailors and officers combined..
  

But before we go on board, there was something else we had to see. We had time since the tour of the ship was done every thirty minutes and we had just missed one by five minutes.  We ventured into the little museum they had available.  This was in the hallway entrance....

Hey!!  This is getting better all the time......:-).  I just made....some kind of officer....haha

Life is good!  I just got promoted to captain....or something...see?

a toast to celebrate my new found career......:-).......Way to go...me!!

Cheers, ya'll.......:-)

uh oh........

Notice the fire in his eyes......haha.... sorry about that.  I couldn't find the "red eye" correction thingee....

Our thirty minutes went very quickly.  So, we had to hurry to the ship for our tour.......
Just look at this thing!  And that's the backside.......gee wilickers!

that's the front half.......

and this thing was mounted on the building of the Nautical Museum that we had just come out of.  I have no clue what kind of plane that is......

And we're not even on the thing yet.....we have to walk up this huge ramp thingee......Somebody is excited......:-).

Once we made our way inside, we met up with our tour guide.  A very knowlegeable gentleman named Skip Chamberlain.....He did not actually serve on this vessel, but was quite a historian and knew a lot about fire directional stuff.  We were required to wear those hard hats while navagating through the ship.  Everything hung low and one surely would have cracked their head like an egg......

this is the back of the room where we were given our briefing.  It served as a dinning room for the officers as well as a triage room for casualties....if you can imagine that.  The appliance were those that were used during that period.  These guys ate off of china even though their surroundings were not fancy.  They had the best of everything while on these voyages.  Well, at least the officers did.....:-).

The table with the white cloth on it served as an operating table.  This was at the forefront of the same room.  The gentleman on the far left was known as "Doc" who actually did serve on this very ship during the war in this very room....:-).

We started our VERY NARROW climb through the hatches up to the various decks of the ship.  This was our first stop.  It would have been the captain's quarters.  Not too shabby, I guess....

  

Now, about that toilet.......uh......where exactly do the "content" go?

This is a private kitchen where a chef is assigned to this officer and selected by a board to serve in this capacity.  He is on call 24 hours a day and is an expert in culinary affairs.....not your everyday cook by an stretch of the imagination....

and this was the private dinning area where dignataries would come to visit and eat and discuss "stuff"...all three rooms were equipped with pass through windows for convenience....

The next thing our guide explained to us, was that since the ship was so large it was quite possible and likely to get lost until you knew your way around.  Once there were too soldiers who met briefly and wanted to stay in contact with one another.  The only problem was, they were assigned to different area, but didn't know how to find each other.  So, they took advantage of the onboard postal system. One sent a postcard to the other saying that he would meet him the following week at a specific place at a specific time.  And that is how they met up each other again! haha. 

These numbers were to assist a soldier in identifying his whereabouts should he get hurt or lost on board and need to get direction to someone to help locate him.   Don't ask me.  I still don't know where I was!

We climbed up to another deck and this was the view from where I stood........

Nice -eh?

This if forward facing.......Look at the size of those guns!  They could shoot up to twenty seven miles and their weight was that of a small car.  But there was "plan b" for when the guns would not reach the target.  They used "drones" that could go much futher.

This was the Admiral's chair.  No one was allowed to sit in it except him.  Even if he was not around.....it was a punishable offense......

and this tiny space is where the Admiral and 16 other crew members would retreat to if they were in danger or under threat of a take over.  I guess you would just pray that the ship was not going down as the door was actually like that of a bank vault door.....and was opened and closed by hydralics...

 and this thingee was designed to show what angle the ship was sitting on.  It works something like a carpenter's level.  If the bubble in the middles swings to 25%, the ship was going to roll onto its side and never recover.
 

this one was kinda weird in that it showed the depth (I think)....Sooooo, how does that work??  I guess if you are sinking straight down, it will come off center......??
got me.  I have no clue....ha

Chris is flaberghasted over the enormity of the beast.........

The ship had its own language too.......

After making our way through various twist and turns, we said goodbye to the USS Battleship Wisconson and made our way back to the Nautical museum.  We had not been to the third floor and only had about an hour to see what was there.  We started the ride up on an escalator......

  

  to my surprise, it appear to be mostly set up for children even though there were some other things there as well......

I walked out on the deck and saw this........

 My husband would do very well as a guide  in a "please touch" museum......:-)

He even does the sound affects.....haha

Everyone was getting hungry and wanted some coffee. So, we made a quick trip around the floor looking at posters and then decided to head back to the lobby. We ran into this on the way back.  It's call a "Rack".   Every thing a salior owned was contained in this compartment......Have I been saying "soldier" instead of "sailor" all of this time???

geeze...  must be all that water!



yep..... that's him.......ha

gotta love him.....haha

even when he tried to sneek in naps where he shouldn't!.........:-(

We finally got out of the museum and headed toward a convenience store for some coffee.  I decided on rootbeer soda and some chips instead.......

  We made our hour trip back to Williamsburg, cooked dinner and settled in to watch the move, "The Iron Lady" before turning in for bed.  It was an exhausting day.....at least to me.  


Stay tuned.....